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General Fitness & HealthDiscuss general fitness. conditioning and health topics.

Most of the exercises would be perfect for muscle building, more so for those that had not done weights before, since most of them, once you look at them, are only weightless versions of a squat, Bulgarian/split squat, a bench press upside down (press-up), incline/decline press-ups, then the triceps work against the bench is similar in movement to the triceps extension but with bodyweight.

So, yes, it can and does work, it's ideal if people can't get to a gym or just want to maintain basic strength and not progress to massive loads, for the latter a gym and/or weights would be required. That said, I have seen a guy that increased his one arm jerk with handstand push-ups etc and never touched a weight for a number of weeks but still managed to set a PR when he did the jerk.

If you know what you're using them for and how to effectively use them, they work, but they will have their limits as well.

I did thai boxing for about 4 yr, we used to do some crazy shit using only our bodies, really brutal, makes me feel sick just thinking about it haha, it certainly helped build explosive strength but i wasnt eating nowhere near enough to build muscle at the time, if i was then maybe i would have gained muscle?, i dont know, i know it was no substitute for iron though. I fought at 180lb and im now 215ish, that weight gain has came from eating like a horse and lifting heavy.

2 years ago I did armstrong pull up program for a few months along with normal rugby training. Got my max pull ups well over 20. And ive to say I put on a load of weight and size for the couple of months I did it.
But ive seen the light now and only do bodyweight workouts if ive no other choice!!